OLIVARK/.. 



OLIVIER, CLAUDE MATTHIEU. 



*Mted, Mandesalo communicated much information which ho obtained 

 at Ceylon concerning the Indo-ChiiMM countries, the empires of China 

 and Jpn, and the Philippine*, the Moluccas, and Java. 



Olearioa. after hi return, was made councillor and librarian to the 

 Duke of Holstein. He died in 1671. He wrote also a chronicle of 

 Holstein, 4to, Schleswig, 1674. 



OL1 VA'KKX. CASPAR QDZXAK, Count Duke de Olivers*, was 

 descended from one of the most illustrious families of Castile, which 

 for three centuries had distinguished itself by courage, honour, and 

 loyalty. Alfonso Perez de Guzman, the first of this name of whom 

 mention is made, was the great captain of the 13th century, and his 

 exploits against the Moon, as well as in the content between the two 

 piinoei of Spain, Don Juan and Don Snncho, have furnished Eome of the 

 most interesting pages of the history of that period. The virtues and 

 military abilities of this family elevated them to the highest dignities 

 cf the kingdom; and the Count Duke de Olivarez reckoned in his 

 lineage, besides the noble house of Medina Sidonia, a long line of 

 illustrious ancestors. 



The Count Duke de Olivarez was born about 1587 at Rome, where 

 his father had been sent as ambassador of Philip III. He was educated 

 in the University of Salamanca; and on the termination of his studies, 

 his uncle, the Duke of Uoeda, introduced him to the prince of Asturias 

 as gentleman of the bedchamber. Olivnrcv. now began to show that 

 love of power which was the passion of his after-life. To gain the 

 affections of him who was to be the ruler of the empire was a great 

 step towards future aggrandisement, and in this lie succeeded so com- 

 pletely, that when Philip IV., at the sge of seventeen, ascended the 

 throne of Spain, in 1621, Olivarez was intrusted with the management 

 of the affairs of the kingdom. Policy induced him to abstain for a 

 few months from assuming nuy definite public character, ami this 

 apparent disinterestedness end. ared him still more to the young kiug, 

 who, as a token of his increased esteem, conferred on the favourite tho 

 title of Duke de San Lucar. 



Guzman now laid aside the mask of moderation, and displacing his 

 benefactor the Duke of Uceda, and dismissing all the beet servants of 

 the people and the king, lie assumed uncontrolled power. The 

 <. .n-i-imisnem that he was building his greatness on the ruin of others, 

 made him so suspicious that he saw an enemy in every individual 

 whom the late minister hsd patronised. Actuated by this feeling, he 

 surrounded himself with meu who had scarcely any other claim to his 

 confidence than attachment to his person, and he put them in places 

 of the first responsibility; those who had hitherto occupied these 

 places were dismissed, and often imprisoned. His various acts of 

 jealousy and injustice were hon ever counterbalanced during the first 

 ]riod of bis elevation by various regulations, which showed a wish to 

 equalise the rights of the Spaniard and to promote the general pros- 

 perity of the country. Grants, both unmerited and profuse, which 

 had been made by preceding kings, were recalled ; marriage was 

 encouraged by exemption from taxes ; foreign artUts and agricul- 

 turists were invited by advantageous offers to settle in Spain; about 

 two-thirds of the idle officials were dismissed, and various sumptuary 

 laws were enforced. Thus the revenue of the state was greatly increased, 

 but the mass of the nation, the labouring part of the community, 

 derived no benefit from these measures. Olivarez, while directing his 

 attention to secondary means, neglected the vital principlts on which 

 depend the internal prosperity of a nation, the encouragement of agri- 

 culture, couimerc , and the mechanical art*. These were suffered 

 gradually to decline, an error which afterwards proved fatal to the 

 popularity of the corrupt favourite ; and the discontent excited by 

 distress at home was increased by the constant failure of the minister's 

 negociatious abroad. 



Cardinal Richelieu, then first minister of France, and the Duke of 

 Buckingham, the favourite and prime minister of Charles I., and par- 

 ticularly the former, poatessed politics which made them more than a 

 match for the unprincipled Spanish minister. Independent of the 

 penonai dislike which Olivarez felt towards the cardinal, each of tlu te 

 itateamen entertained views which placed them in constant opposition. 

 The aim of Olivarei was to raise the preponderance of the home of 

 Austria; that of the cardinal, to <:epre*s both Austria and Spain. 

 l i>. kingham tided with the French or Spanish favourite, as it suited 

 his intercut. Thui, though Spain exhausted her coffers in spreading 

 her armies over Holland, Germany, and Italy, whatever advantages she 

 obtained were rendered unavailing by the superior combinations of 

 Riclwlwu. Olivarex was baffled in every attempt to regain the influence 

 which Spain had one* exervlied all over Europe, and be brought the 

 country to the verge of niin. 



The un|pulanty of Olivarei, owing lo these reverses and his mis- 

 taken policy. Lad become general, when the insurrections of Catalonia 

 and soon alter that of 1'ortugal took place, in 1010, in consequence of the 

 minister's attempt* to invade the rights of thote states. These events 

 and more particularly his attempts to trample on the privileges of a 

 proud nobility, in which bo bad only a selfi-h object in view, were a 

 d ath l.low to the power of the minuter, lie still struggled for three 

 jeais against bis failing fortune, but was at length compelled to 

 abandon the affairs of state. In 1843 hu was requested by the kiug 

 to resign, just at the moment when the death of Kichelieu opened to 

 him the piospect of success. Olivarez administered the affairs of 

 Spain for the long period of twenty-two year*, but more through the 



favour of the feeble king whom he governed than by his capacity, and 

 Us name has become historical, not for the good which ho did, but 

 from the position which he occupied. Detested by the whole nation, 

 he spent the short remainder of his life in obscurity. He died in 

 1643, shortly after his disgrace. 



(Cespedi-s, Bin. de Felipe IV. This writer is partial to Olivarez.) 



OLIVER, ISAAC, an eminent English miniature painter, was born 

 in the year 1556. He studied first under Milliard, and received 

 further instruction from Frederick Zucchero. His chief employment 

 was in painting the portraits in miniature of the most distinguished 

 personages of his time, and many very fine portraits by him are pre- 

 served in the collections of the English nobility and gentry. Among 

 them there are some portraits of himself, of Queen Elizabeth, Mary 

 queen of Scots, Priuc* Henry, son of James I., Ben Jonson, and 

 others, which are admirably finished, and fully justify the high 

 reputation which he enjoyed. A whole-length portrait of Sir Philip 

 Sidney is especially admired. It is no mean testimony to bis merit 

 that Rubens and Vandyck painted King James I. after a miniature 

 by this master. He was a good and correct designer, his touch was 

 neat and delicate, and his works are still as highly esteemed as they 

 were by his contemporaries. Though he generally worked in minia- 

 ture, he frequently painted on a larger size, and sometimes attempted 

 historical subjects, in which there is much merit. He occasionally 

 worked in oil as well as in water-colours, but with little success. 

 His drawings, many of which are copies from Parmigiano, are beau- 

 tifully finished and highly prized. In the apartment called Queen 

 Caroline's Closet at Kensington Palace, there is a fine drawing by 

 Oliver, the subject of which is the Entombment of our Saviour, and 

 another from Raffaelle's Murder of the Innocents. He died in 1617 

 at the age of sixty-one. 



OLIVKU, PKTKR, the sou and disciple of Isaac, was born in 1001, 

 and though so young at the time of bis father's death, had so well 

 profited by his instruction and example, that he attained a degree of 

 perfection in miniatui e portrait painting superior to his father or to 

 any of his contemporaries, especially as he did not confine his subjects 

 to a head only. He likewise painted historical pictures, mm 

 which were in the collection of Charles I. and James II. Seven of 

 these are still preserved in Queen Caroline's Closet at Kensington. 

 He died about 1664. 



OLIVET, JOSEPH THOULIER D', was born at Salins, the 1st 

 of April 16X2, of respectable parents. Having been admitted among 

 the Jesuits, he was sent to their college at llheims in 1700, and after- 

 wards to Dijon and Paris. At Paris he became acquainted with 

 some of the most eminent literary men of the time, and took an 

 active part in the controversy which then existed in the French 

 Academy, on the comparative merits of the ancient and modern 

 writers. He warmly supported the claims of the Latin and Greek 

 writers to our attentive study, in opposition to the opinions of Foute- 

 nelle, La Mothe, and Perruult. Olivet, about the year 1714, left the 

 society of the Jesuits, much to their r. gret, who offered him the place 

 of instructor to the Prince of Asturiua to induce him to remain. In 

 17-3 Olivet was elected a member of the French Academy. He passed 

 the remainder of his life at Paris, engaged in various literary works, 

 and in occasional squabbles with his associates in the Academy, lie 

 died at the advanced age of eighty-six, on the 8th of Octobt r 

 The personal character of Olivet appears, notwithstanding the attacks 

 of some of hia enemies, to have been without reproach. Among his 

 numerous friends, who always spoke of him with the greatest respect, 

 no one appears to have had a higher opinion of his UleuU and virtues 

 than Voltaire, who was introduced by Olivet into the French Aca.l my. 

 ('Discount de M. de Voltaire a TAcadcSmie Fraucaise,' CEuvres com- 

 pletes, vol. 4U.) Severn! letters of Voltaire to Olivet are extant. 



The principal work of Olivet is his edition of Cicero, which was 

 originally published at Paris in 174042, in 9 volumes, 4to. This 

 edition, which is of little critical value, contains many useful notes, 

 chiefly extracted from preceding commentators. It was reprinted at 

 U. nova in l"!i>b, in U volumes 4to, and very incorrectly at Oxford in 

 1763, in 10 volumes 4to. Olivet's translations of Cicero are some of 

 the best that have been published, though, like most of the French 

 translations, they are deficient in accuracy. Of these the principal 

 are, the 'De Xatura Deorum,' 1721, 1732, Ac.; the 'Tuaculaiiic 

 Quaationes,' 1737, 1747, of which the third and fifth books are trans- 

 lated by liouhier; the Orations against Catiline, together with the 

 ' I'l.ilippios ' of Demosthenes, 1727, 1736, &c. He also edited extracts 

 from Cicero with a truncation into French, under the title of 

 PensoVs d Cicdron.' which has been frequently reprinted and 

 extensively used in the French schools. The only other work of 

 Olivet worthy of notice is bin continuation of ' I'cli-nou's ' History 

 of the French Academy ' (' Histoire de 1'Acadomie Francaise '), pub- 

 lished oiigiually in 17:214, in '2 vols. 4to, and reprinted in 17;!", in :! 

 vols. 12mo. 



ULIVIK'R, CLAUDE MATTHIEU, was born at Marseille, Sep. 

 Umber 21, 1701. Having become counsellor to the parliament of 

 Paris, he greatly distinguished himself as a pleader. Ho waa one 

 of the founders of the University of Marseille. Ho wrote rcveral 

 works, the principal of which is the ' Histoire de Philippe Roi de 

 Maccdoine et Pore d'Alexandre le Grand,' 2 vols. 12mo, Paris, 1740, 

 published after the death of the author. He wrote also a dissertation 



